Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
LVMAN
Editor and Proprietor.
PUBLISHED
EVERY
SATURDAY
3 East 14th St.. New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including: postage) United States and
Canada, $3.00 per year; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
Insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts;- special dis-
count is allowed.
REMITTANCES, In other than currency form, should
toe made payable to Edward Ly man Bill.
Entered at the New York Pbst Office as Second Cbis MmSter.
NEW YORK, APRIL 17, 1897.
TELEPHONE NUMBER 1745. — EIGHTEENTH STREET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review
will contain a supplement embodying the liter-
ary and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a trade
paper.
THE TRADE DIRECTORY.
The Trade Directory, which is a feature of
The Review each month, is complete. In it ap-
pears the names and addresses of all firms en-
gaged in the manufacture of musical instruments
and the allied trades. The Review is sent to
the United States Consulates throughout the
world, and is on file in the reading rooms of the
principal hotels in America.
T
HE National Association of Manufac-
turers have just issued a valuable re-
port of our foreign trade with Argentina,
Uruguay and Brazil, the result of an inves-
tigation conducted by a commission organ-
ized by the Association which visited these
countries recently.
It is evident, from the report, that there
is a large outlet for American manufac-
tures in these countries, if only proper ef-
forts be made to obtain a share of trade.
An instance of our indifference to these
markets may be gleaned from the fact that
Europe, in the last ten years, sent goods
to Brazil to the value of $200,000,000, while
the United States sent only one-twentieth
of that amount.
The report combats the prevalent idea
that a great obstacle to increasing our ex-
port trade with South America is the lack
of shipping facilities, and shows that dur-
ing 1895 there were thirty-seven clearances
of steamers from New York for the River
Plate and ninety-four for Brazilian ports,
to which may be added a considerable num-
ber of sailing vessels. Nor does the Manu-
facturers' Association lay much stress on
the lack of direct banking facilities. Steam-
ship lines and banks are of importance, we
are told, but far and beyond this is the
necessity of intelligent traveling salesmen
speaking the Spanish or Portuguese lan-
guage who can show the goods in the mar-
ket and fully explain their merits. South
American merchants say that the Europeans
bring their goods to the buyers, while
Americans wait for the buyers to come to
them, and this, says the report, is undoubt-
edly the experience in Argentina and
Brazil.
In the report a high compliment is paid
the pertinacious energy of the traveling
agents of German manufacturers, who seem
to know their business from A to Z, hence at-
tain splendid results. They make it their
business to study the requirements of the
houses to which they are catering and
are thoroughly equipped. True, there are
traveling agents from Great Britain, and a
few from the United States, but they do
not equal those from Germany in energy
or in persistence.
In order to secure a firm hold in the
South American countries American sales-
men must be capable of explaining the
adaptability of the goods they represent,
they must also determine whether it would
be profitable for the American manufactur-
er to make desired changes in order to
meet the demand.
As a matter of course, before entering
upon this trade, the American manufac-
turer should determine after investigation
the chances of success, and then work up
the trade as strenuously and as effectively
as he does in his own country. In the
past all efforts to build up export trade
have been spasmodic, hence futile.
Not only does the report express admira-
tion of the rapid strides made by German
manufacturers through their traveling
salesmen, but especially calls the attention
of American firms to the policy of sending
young men abroad to take minor positions
in the prominent importing houses, with a
view to learing in five or six years all the
details and requirements of the trade. A
German manufacturer and foreign mer-
chant is by such methods far better in-
formed respecting the requirements of
foreign trade than his competitors in other
countries.
The report, taken all in all, is a valuable
contribution and cannot fail to be a stimu-
lus to manufacturers in all industries.
The salvation of the American manufactu-
rer lays in enlarged markets. We are to-
day producing more than we can consume,
and we must sell abroad, hence the exhaus-
tive and interesting points made in this
report are invaluable.
The work of the National Association of
Manufacturers is already having a benefi-
cial effect, and it is only one example of
what can be accomplished by means of the
association of business concerns for their
common benefit.
+
+
Spring, the season the poets sing of,
with its attendant charms, is with us, but
the demand for pianos—that is the "ex-
pected" demand—materealizeth not. There
is a lot of grumbling and complaints are
universal.
Now if we reflect on and consider the
unprecedented and calamitous conditions
which have existed in the music trade and
other industries of this country for the
past few years, it is unreasonable and
illogical to expect other than the slow im-
provement which is now making itself
manifest over the country. No miracle
healer can relieve our commercial ills;
time is the only healer.
Strange as it may seem, there is a steady
betterment in trade, opinions to the con-
trary notwithstanding; not great in extent
or volume, it is true, nevertheless sufficient
to make us feel hopeful and confident. It
is not as pronounced in our trade as in the
woolen, cotton, iron and steel, and other
great industries, but it is coming our way
slowly but surely. " Better times "are being
felt to a much greater extent in the small-
er cities and towns than in the important
commercial centers such as New York,
Chicago, etc.
The reports travelers are sending in tell
of a steadier, healther feeling all over. Sales
are not as large in volume as they should
be perhaps, but inquiries are frequent and
the lisless, indifferent feeling which has
obtained for some time with dealers is
disappearing and they are taking off their
coats and getting to work. Many of our
manufacturers are following suit; they are
progressing. Others fail to recognize that
the piano business of this country has
undergone radical changes, they are living
in the past and are retrogressing.
The manufacturer or the dealer may
minimize or maximize the extent and na-
ture of the metamorphosis; it may be a
benefit; it may be a curse; but they can-
not overlook its existence.
Thenew order of things must be accepted.
We would not care to replace electric light or
electric power with candles or hand power,
and so it applies to all devices and inven-
tions in the manufacturing and business
world. The changes in the industry are
inevitable—they simply spell "progress."
They may carry with them greater effort
in securing and developing trade, with less
pecuniary results than heretofore, and,
moreover, demolish a number of cherished
traditions, but it were better to inquire
and seek than ignore or fight against their
adoption.